   | ||
|
 | Newsroom | |
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Four Arrested During Saturday Gypsy Mountain Raid; Tree-Sitters Extracted and Aradia Grove Cut Down 9-27-04 For Immediate Release - Contact: September 27, 2004 For immediate release September 27, 2004 Contact: NCEF! Media (707) 268-5613 Four Arrested During Saturday Gypsy Mountain Raid Tree-Sitters Extracted and Aradia Grove Cut Down Humboldt Co., CA-Maxxam Corp./Pacific Lumber Co. returned to the Van Duzen River/Grizzly Creek watershed this past Saturday, along with the Eric Schatz extraction team and Humboldt County sheriff's deputies. Three activists were arrested after being removed from an old growth redwood tree, named "Aradia" by Earth First! activists, and one activist was arrested on the ground. After the extractions and arrests, Maxxam/PL proceeded to cut down Aradia, along with the surrounding trees in the once-untouched grove. The area being defended was named "Gypsy Mountain" by Earth First! activists, when David "Gypsy" Chain was killed there, on September 17th, 1998, when an irate Maxxam/PL logger fell trees in the direction of a group of non-violent protestors. After what many Earth First! activists believe to be a cover-up by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Dept., who called Chain's death an "accident," a civil suit was filed and won by David's family, creating a "Gypsy Memorial" as part of the out-of-court settlement, in 2001. Immediately after the settlement, a new timber harvest plan was discovered on Gypsy Mountain, filed by Maxxam/PL, and including the old growth redwood named "Aradia." David Chain had been one of the first people to initially climb Aradia, in 1998, and an active tree-sit was occupied there at the time of Chain's death. A new tree-sit began in January of 2002, and Aradia had been constantly occupied ever since, in hopes of getting it preserved as an addition to the Gypsy Memorial. Proposals had been written and sent to Maxxam Corp. in Houston, TX, and Pacific Lumber Co., in Scotia, CA, and one long-time Earth First! activist, Shunka Wakan, traveled to Houston, to the Maxxam shareholders' meeting, in May 2004, and made the proposal in a face-to-face meeting with CEO Charles Hurwitz. David Chain's mother had also come all the way from Houston, in August 2004, to implore Robert Manne, president of PL, to save Aradia. "The fact that they went ahead and cut the Aradia grove, after all these years of various efforts, reinforces my view that Maxxam/PL has no respect for life, beauty, and the sacred; it's certainly a blatant disrespect towards David "Gypsy" Chain, his life and death, and his family," stated Shunka, who was also an eyewitness to Gypsy's death, and has been supporting the tree-sit since it began in 2002. Activists reported of the use of pain compliance by the contract climbers, and one activist was dropped on his head by officer Bolton of the Humboldt Co. Sheriff's Dept., and had to be taken to the emergency room. The extraction team consisted of five climbers, at least one more on the ground to assist in lowering activists, and many security employees, some with video cameras, and others driving around Gypsy Mountain on ATVs. The contract climbers were wearing "TAC-1" vests and were placing activists under citizens arrests using metal handcuffs. The extractions took most of the day, and some nearby trees were fallen while activists were still in the tree. Once all the activists had been removed, the ancient redwood Aradia was cut down, ending a life nearly 1,000 years old.  << Back to Press Release Archive | Latest Press Release | Newsroom | | 
| | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |
Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters (BACH) is a project of the Ecology Center. Website design facilitated by Trees Foundation. © BACH |
